This application is related to and claims benefit of priority, based upon 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119, from Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-188135, filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Jun. 22, 2000, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-124312, filed in the Japanese Patent Office in Apr. 23, 2001, the entire contents of both Japanese Patent Applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a powder container for containing powder, e.g. a toner or a developer, and an image forming apparatus using the container.
2. Discussion of the Background
Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus such as a printer, copy machine, or facsimile, a toner container for containing a powder toner has been formed of such a hard bottle as a cartridge or bottle, thus suffering from a problem of discarding the container which is exhausted. That is, an exhausted toner container must be withdrawn from a user to a manufacturer, who has to then wash it if it is to be refurbished or recycled. However, the toner generally cannot completely be washed off the toner container. Accordingly, the exhausted toner containers are presently generally dumped to a dumping site or burned as garbage. Because the toner container is generally bulky, the operation cost of collecting the toner container from a user to the manufacturer is relatively high.
To reduce the cost of collecting the toner container, there has been made a suggestion for the toner container that can reduce the volume thereof.
Such a volume-reducible toner container, however, has not been able to maintain the replenishing performance in a stable manner when replenishing a toner therefrom using a toner replenishing apparatus. Moreover, there has been made a suggestion that such a volume-reducible container should be used only in transportation. The suggestion, however, has not been put into practical use because it suffers from, for example, a problem of contamination due to splashing of the toner at the time of placing the toner into a hard bottle or a toner hopper of a copying machine.
The inventor of the present application has suggested a toner container that can mitigate the above-mentioned problems. This toner container has a bag-in-box configuration that includes a case made of a rigid material and a flexible inner bag which contains the toner and which is housed in the case. After use, this toner container can be greatly reduced in volume, because the toner is contained in the flexible inner bag, and the case is capable of being folded. Thereby, the transportation cost is significantly decreased. Further, when the toner container is mounted to a copying machine, because the flexible inner bag is housed in the rigid case, the inner bag can be protected by the case against an external impact. Furthermore, the toner container has other advantages such as good handling performance due to the rigid case.
Although the bag-in-box type toner container is thus preferable, there is need for further simplifying such work as attaching and detaching the inner bag to and from the case and permitting anyone to properly fold the case after use.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-discussed and other problems and addresses the above-discussed and other problems.
Accordingly, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a novel powder container in which an inner bag can be simply attached to and detached from a case and in which the case can be simply and securely folded by any one, and an image forming apparatus using the powder container.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a powder container includes a deformable inner bag for containing powder, and a case which has rigidity higher than that of the inner bag and which has an inner space capable of housing the inner bag therein. The case has an opening through which the inner bag can be attached and detached. Thus, the inner bag can be easily replaced through the opening.
In the above powder container, the case may be a polyhedron having four face plates or more, and also the opening may be formed at a position corresponding to one or more of those face plates, which are large enough to form the opening such that the inner bag passes therethrough in one direction so as to be attached to and detached from the case.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a powder container includes a deformable inner bag for containing powder, a case which has rigidity higher than that of the inner bag and which has an inner space capable of housing the inner bag therein. An opening is formed in the case for attaching and detaching the inner bag therethrough, and a door member for opening and closing the opening is provided. The inner bag is more securely protected because the opening of the case is provided with the door member.
The powder container may include a holding device to hold the above-mentioned door member in a closed state.
Further, in the powder container, the above-mentioned case may be a polyhedron having four face plates or more, and the above-mentioned opening may be formed at a corresponding position of one or more of those face plates, which are large enough to form the opening such that the inner bag passes therethrough from one direction so as to be attached to and detached from the case, and the above-mentioned door member is the face plate provided at the position corresponding to the above-mentioned opening.
The above-mentioned case in a polyhedron can be developed in a plate shape and the above-mentioned door member may be the face plate that is closed when the above-mentioned case is assembled.
Furthermore, one side of the above-mentioned door member may be mounted to the case in a rotatable manner and the other side thereof may be engaged with the case in an engaging/disengaging manner. Further, the above-mentioned holding device may be a sheet material provided in such a manner as to pass the engaging side of the door member.
The above-mentioned sheet material may be wound in such a direction as to pass the rotating side and the engaging side of the above-mentioned door member.
Furthermore, the above-mentioned sheet material may have information about use written on its surface.
Furthermore, a portion of the above-mentioned case covered by the above-mentioned sheet material may have information about disassembling of the case written thereon.
Furthermore, the portion of the above-mentioned case covered by the above-mentioned sheet material may have an auxiliary shape for disassembling of the case formed thereon.
Moreover, the above-mentioned sheet material may be provided with a portion for promoting cutting thereof in a direction different from its winding direction.
In addition, the above-mentioned cutting promoting portion may be provided on the face plate in the case, which is provided adjacent the engaging side of the above-mentioned door member and in the vicinity of the engaging side of the door member.
Furthermore, the orientation of the sheet material where the above-mentioned cutting promotion portion starts to cut the sheet material and a portion of the inner bag at which the powder is discharged may be in the same direction.
Moreover, the above-mentioned sheet material may be paper or a film.
In addition, a member for determining a position at which the above-mentioned sheet material is wound is provided for the above-mentioned case.
Furthermore, one side of the above-mentioned door member may be mounted to the above-mentioned case in a rotable manner and the other side of the door may be engaged with the case in an engaging/disengaging manner, and, in addition, the above-mentioned holding member may be a seal pasted to the engaging side of the above-mentioned door member.
Moreover, the above-mentioned seal may be pasted over a boundary between the above-mentioned door member and the face plate adjacent the engaging side of the door member.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, an image forming apparatus includes a developing device and a powder container. The powder container includes a deformable inner bag for containing powder, and a case having an inner space large enough to house the inner bag. The case has higher rigidity than the inner bag. The case has an opening through which the inner bag is attached to and detached from the case. The powder container contains toner, and the toner is replenished to the developing device from the container.